Dedicated Officers To Help Victims Of Domestic Abuse

Dorset Police are bringing in specially trained officers dedicated to working with domestic abuse victims over Christmas.

From Thursday officers will conduct extra reassurance visits to vulnerable adults and child victims to make sure they're safe.

Serial offenders will also be contacted to make sure they're abiding by their court orders.

Katie O'Connell works for You First which is one of the domestic support groups the police are working with.

She says, "Victims of domestic abuse struggle to report it, because they are frightened about what the consequences are and I think they need reassurance from the Police. But for all of them to know there is support from us to get them through that."

"We're not social services, we're not the Police, we're there literally to walk alongside them and give them that extra strength."

Across the county Dorset Police get at least 700 calls a month reporting domestic abuse but Katie thinks there are a lot more that aren't being reported.

"We deal with a lot of people who have never reported to the Police before, we've had over 13 hundred people referred to our service and daily we get people calling just for advice."

"We don't judge, if [a victim] wants to stay in a relationship, we tell them what they're options are... to make sure they're as safe as possible, we're not there to arrest of take people away."

You First are a team of four that cover the whole of Dorset, aside from Bournemouth and Poole, if you'd like to contact them their number is 0800 032 5204